out of breath
by Talking to Angels
Summary: It's hard to run in his stiff office clothes, but over the years, Kageyama had been careful to keep himself in shape even after he stopped playing volleyball. However, it seems that the other person is just as fast- because suddenly the footsteps are sounding beside him instead of behind and wow, is this guy seriously trying to race him?
Kageyama is not a fast walker by nature. Well, he isn't exactly a slow walker either, but he generally did not like to rush if he was going someplace. Unless he's late, which he tries not to be. It's why he leaves his apartment at precisely 7:30 AM each morning to get to work on time.

However, if there's one thing Kageyama cannot stand, it's being passed by people when he's walking. And it's not like he doesn't like walking behind people, it's a big city, there's _always_ somebody walking in front of him. It's just that being passed by somebody who was originally behind him makes him feel… slow, and oddly like being left behind. Like he's losing, even though it isn't a competition.

The problem with that is he usually ends up speed walking everywhere because he's having a nonexistent race with everybody. He'd been told before that it makes him look very purposeful, like he has somewhere important to be at all times. Which is not the case, but he doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Despite that, there is always one time of day that he doesn't have to walk like his life depends on it, and that's the 10-minute walk from his apartment building to the bus stop. His apartment building is on a relatively quiet street, and there's usually no one there for Kageyama to out-walk in the morning.

That is, until one Tuesday morning. The morning starts out just like any other day in Kageyama's uneventful life. He gets up at 6:45 sharp, gets dressed, makes himself a quick breakfast, washes his face and brushes his teeth and he's out the door by exactly 7:30.

He begins his walk to the bus stop, and at first, everything is fine. He isn't speed walking, knowing that he'll need to do that later on the walk to his office once he gets off the bus.

Then, once he's almost at the halfway point between his building and the stop, he hears footsteps behind him. Kageyama reasons that if he can hear this person's footsteps, they must be walking fairly close to him. He doesn't turn to look, because unless this person starts to try and pass him, it's none of his business how fast they're walking.

The footsteps don't relent, though, in fact, Kageyama thinks they may be getting closer. That stresses him out, because even though he isn't being passed it's kind of nerve-wracking to hear the steps speeding him behind him. Like he's being followed.

Kageyama starts to walk faster. Honestly, he isn't quite sure that he _isn't_ being followed at this point because he can hear this person _still getting closer_.

Speeding up even more, and Kageyama can see the last block before the bus stop already. Hopefully, this guy won't be going to the same place as him.

It seems that the universe is against him today because he swears that whoever's behind him is actually so close right now that Kageyama will literally be run over if he does not get a move on.

So Kageyama does the only thing that comes to mind.

He runs.

It's hard to run in his stiff office clothes, but over the years, Kageyama had been careful to keep himself in shape even after he stopped playing volleyball. However, it seems that the other person is just as fast- because suddenly the footsteps are sounding beside him instead of behind and wow, is this guy seriously trying to _race_ him?

Looking over, Kageyama sees the source of his grief is another man, and his hair is a bright orange. He's a _small_ man, but he's also _incredibly fast_. Kageyama is full-on sprinting and he's just barely ahead thanks to his longer legs.

Kageyama knows that he's always treated walking with people as some sort of unspoken competition, but never in his life did he ever think he'd actually end up racing with a stranger on the street.

People jump aside for them on the sidewalk as they run towards the quickly approaching bus stop. They must look insane, two grown men racing each other like children on a playground.

Kageyama honestly doesn't know where this small-but-fast man is headed, but he's kind of getting worried because the bus stop is getting really, really close, and if they don't stop soon they'll pass it completely.

The bus stop flies by. Kageyama doesn't stop because he thinks that if he does, it might look like he's admitting defeat. And he's certainly not. So, he keeps on going.

Half a block later, it appears that they've reached a mutual decision to end the race. Kageyama bends over and puts his hand on his knees while he catches his breath, and the other guy leans on a nearby lamp post.

When Kageyama straightens back up, he hears the other man say, "I win."

Snapping his head around to look at the guy, Kageyama glares at him. Then he realizes again just how tiny this man is. He barely comes up to Kageyama's chin, and that's only because of his wild hair. "No, you didn't. I obviously won."

"Liar, it was totally me, you just don't want to admit it!"

"It totally was not-" Kageyama breaks off abruptly when he sees his bus pull up half a block away out of the corner of his eye. "Shit, that's my bus!"

Small Guy turns around to see what Kageyama's talking about. His eyes widen when he also sees the bus. "It's mine too!"

They share a glance, before starting off at full speed once again in an attempt to reach the bus in time.

Kageyama sees the bus doors close, and that's when he knows he can kiss his pristine attendance record at his job goodbye.

Small Guy yells for the bus to wait, but since public transportation waits for no one (Kageyama still has nightmares about the time he got his leg stuck in the train doors the one time he tried to squeeze through while it was closing) the bus drives away and leaves the two of them in the figurative dust.

For a moment, neither of them say a thing. Just standing there in silence, Kageyama contemplates how he's going to tell his boss that he's late to work because he got caught up having an impromptu race with a complete stranger on the street.

A loud groan breaks the silence between them, and Kageyama looks to see Small Guy with his face in his hands. "Today's my first day at my new job and I'm going to be late."

At that, Kageyama immediately feels bad for him, because now he feels partially responsible even though he'd never asked the guy to actually race with him.

Except Kageyama obviously has trouble putting his thoughts into words, so instead he says, "We wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't tried to race me."

Small Guy whips his head up to glare at Kageyama. "Excuse me, but I think you were the one trying to race me. Why were you trying to run away from me anyway? Were you scared of me or something?"

Kageyama isn't about to admit that yes, he had been getting a little creeped out back there, so he snorts and mutters, "Who would ever find someone as small as you scary? You look like a middle school student."

Apparently, he does not mutter it quietly enough, because Small Guy snaps, "Hey! I'm not a student, I'm 26!"

Kageyama chokes on his own saliva. He had been so sure that he was the mature one here. He can't believe that this tiny guy is 26 and he's only 25. "Y-You're _older_ than me?"

At that, the other man smiles triumphantly and puffs out his chest. "Don't underestimate me."

Kageyama's rolling his eyes when the guy starts speaking again. "But seriously, why'd you start walking so fast?"

Kageyama doesn't answer immediately because he isn't sure how he feels about sharing his obsession about being faster than other people with this stranger. But then he remembers that said stranger literally just raced him on the street, so he mumbles, "I don't like it when other people walk past me on the street. It makes me feel like I'm losing."

At first, Kageyama isn't sure that Small Guy heard him at all because he stares at him without saying anything. Then, he just starts _laughing_ , laughing at Kageyama, and Kageyama wants to punch him in the face.

But he has a really nice laugh, Kageyama thinks, so maybe he can forgive him for laughing this one time. And then he immediately goes bright red at his train of thought.

"What are you _laughing_ at?" Kageyama grits out.

"I'm sorry! But I just find that hilarious. You know that it isn't a competition, right?" Small Guy says from between laughs.

Kageyama glares at him. "Yes, I know that, but don't forget who actually turned it into a race."

Small Guy straightens up. "I wasn't trying to race you!" Kageyama's glare intensifies, and Small Guy throws his hands up in surrender. "Fine, so I ended up trying to outrun you when you started running! But I swear that's not how it started! I'm not in a habit of just racing random people on the street!"

"Then why-" Kageyama starts before he's abruptly interrupted.

"Okay, you know how you said you don't like to get passed when you're walking? I do the opposite, like, I _have_ to pass people when they're walking in front of me! A lot of the times it's just because they're too slow, but sometimes I just like to pass them because it makes me feel like I'm winning!"

Kageyama stares, he's never heard of anything so absurd in his whole life. And so that's exactly what he tells this crazy stranger.

"Hey! You're such a huge hypocrite! It's not like you don't do something equally weird!" Is what he gets in reply.

"Sure, but there's _always_ somebody in front of you on the sidewalk. It's a busy city, there are people everywhere. How are you not dead or something from all that running?" Kageyama asks, genuinely confused and amazed at the same time.

"Well, I don't try to walk faster than everybody! Only the ones that are directly in front of me!" Small Guy retorts.

This time, it's Kageyama's turn to laugh and the Small Guy's turn to glare. He tells Kageyama that he's got no right to laugh, but what he doesn't know is that Kageyama isn't really laughing at him, but rather at how stupid the both of them are. What were the chances of this happening, anyway? Probably one in a million, and Kageyama was just that lucky.

When Kageyama doesn't stop laughing for a good minute (which is very rare, Kageyama doesn't laugh all that much), Small Guy starts laughing with him. For a few moments all they do is laugh, at themselves, at each other, at the hilarity of the situation. They start drawing weird looks from random passerby, and that's when they finally stop.

After they both catch their breath from their laughing fit, Small Guy speaks up. "I guess we're both stuck here until the next bus comes, then."

"Yeah, I guess…" then Kageyama remembers that this guy said that he was late to his new job, and how he had immediately started blaming him instead of apologizing for making him late. Well, technically he also made Kageyama late, so they were even, really, but then again it's the guy's first day today, and whatever trouble Kageyama is going to get into later on probably won't be half as bad as whatever this guy's employer is going to do to him. "Uh, sorry that you're late to your new job, or whatever."

"Sorry you're late to yours." Small Guy sighs.

Kageyama grunts in response, and the two of them fall into a silence that's not entirely uncomfortable. After a while, Small Guy speaks up again.

"Hey, so what's your name? I just realized we've been talking for a while, but I still don't know your name. I'm Hinata, by the way." Smiling, he adds, "I've just been calling you Scary Frowny Guy in my head the whole time."

Kageyama sputters in indignation, but then again, his own nickname for Hinata probably isn't much better. Hinata laughs at his reaction, and Kageyama grumbles out his name, along with what he's been calling Hinata in his head.

Hinata has an even more dramatic response than he did, squawking and glaring and insistently saying that he is _not_ that short, Kageyama's just big, that's all.

Kageyama just snickers at that, and Hinata looks even more affronted.

Hearing a rumble, both of them turn their heads to see a bus approaching. Seeing that it's their bus, Hinata lets out a cheer and Kageyama a pleased noise.

Getting on to the bus, Kageyama contemplates how he's now almost 30 minutes late. But Hinata sits down next to him and suddenly, he's not so upset over that anymore.

Kageyama has never made friends easily, and his social life is practically nonexistent. There are a few coworkers who talk to him at work, but otherwise, Kageyama's pretty used to being alone. But listening to Hinata's loud babbling while he tells Kageyama story after story during the entire bus ride, Kageyama wonders if maybe his life had been _too_ quiet before.

Kageyama discovers that Hinata's stop is just two stops after his own, and he gets off his job at around the same time Kageyama does, so when he boards the bus again after work and finds Hinata smiling and waving he barely hesitates to sit down next to him.

Hinata tells him that although he got a huge scolding for being late, he wasn't fired, and Kageyama meant the "Good," he said in reply to that.

Kageyama sees Hinata again the next morning, and they end up racing to the bus stop again. This time, they stop when they're supposed to and don't miss their bus.

It becomes their routine, racing to the bus stop each morning and then back again from the bus stop each evening. The loser always buys the winner meat buns from the convenience store.

Somewhere along the way, they become friends, or something like that. And if Kageyama purposely throws the race sometimes just so he can see Hinata's smile when he gets his reward meat bun, nobody has to know.

And although their races always leave them panting and exhausted first thing in the morning, Kageyama doesn't want to stop it for anything in the world. The way Hinata still laughs after every race, despite already being short of breath, tells Kageyama that he wouldn't want to stop either.

And when one day after a race back from the convenience store, Hinata kisses him on his doorstep, Kageyama knows the reason he's out of breath isn't from the running he did.

* * *

 **A/N:** Posted this on ao3 a while ago, but forgot to here.


End file.
